I am a new Linux user that switched over from macOS, and I am trying to compile under Pinguy 18.04 (which is based on Ubuntu 18.04). I made sure that I had sdl2, wxWidgets, and OpenAL installed first. But when I enter "./configure --enable-release", it returns with this error: 'C compiler cannot create executables'.

and again, despite all problems during configure it still compiles fine from src folder by "make -f Makefile.linux64-wx-sdl2" ??? so what is it that i am missing by using this command insted of ./configure and make?

That is funny, I thought build-essential would have installed the required files (SDL2, wxWidgets, and OpenAL), but aparrently not. As for wxWidget, the only thing I installed via Sypnatic that was related to that was wx-common. The description said "Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (common support files)"

Hi, build-essential, contains the the essential tools to build any C program, and only the essentials. Basically, a compiler (GCC), make and a few other essentials. You will need to install SDL2, OpenAL, wxWidgets via your package manager.

If running debian, or ubuntu, or a distribution derived from those (like mint), you will the "-dev" versions of the packages as well.

For wxWidgets, you usually need the package wxgtk (or whatever it's called). In ubuntu, you want "libwxgtk3.0" and "libwxgtk3.0-dev"

Katakis, shermap said right, most of the libs should have -dev at the end , as this are libs for developers, you will get there, it is very simple, and after you have sane environment and it still causes you problems , go to src folder and execute : make -f Makefile.linux64-wx-sdl2 it should compile with no errors. as sherman isntruct you , do install libsdl2-dev (in debian) and libwxgtk3.0-dev and you should be good to go, if not, ./config will give you clues

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'libfontconfig1-dev' instead of 'libfontconfig-dev'
build-essential is already the newest version (12.4ubuntu1).
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgtk-3-dev : Depends: libegl1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed
libsdl2-dev : Depends: libasound2-dev but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libegl1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libgl1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libgles2-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libglu1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libpulse-dev but it is not going to be installed
qt5-default : Depends: qtbase5-dev but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I don't think I can issue the second command if the first isn't successful.

Katakis , i think you allready have all you need, do ./configure once again and see whats missing , libgtk-3-dev isnt requried, i dont use it. what distro are you using ,ubuntu stable/testing ? remember , if you try download separate libs from internet you must install correct version, otherwise dependiencies will start to crumble and soon you will be in unrecoverable mess better use synaptic. libsdl2-dev needs to be installed, you can check in synaptic what dependiences needs to be meet and if there are any conflicts. when it says "Depends: lib......... but it is not going to be installed" means that probably you did download some libs from internet and installed manually without checking correct version. have you installed libs manually? cos that what it looks to me

The main problem was with PinguyOS 18.04. It would not let me compile PCem in a Terminal without complaining about broken dependencies, and when I tried to install those ones, it gave me more dependencies to worry about, and then it went on and on until I just gave up. Even when I tried with sypnatic, all that resulted was a red checkbox with an exclamation mark in it. Pinguy would not even install Wine. I ended up switching distros to LMDE 3, and everything works like a dream.

The only errors I get are these, but I guess they are nothing to worry about.